Asymmetries in behavioral and neural responses to spectral cues demonstrate the generality of auditory looming bias.

ABSTRACT: Studies of auditory looming bias have shown that sources increasing in intensity are more salient than sources decreasing in intensity. Researchers have argued that listeners are more sensitive to approaching sounds compared with receding sounds, reflecting an evolutionary pressure. However, these studies only manipulated overall sound intensity; therefore, it is unclear whether looming bias is truly a perceptual bias for changes in source distance, or only in sound intensity. Here we demonstrate both behavioral and neural correlates of looming bias without manipulating overall sound intensity. In natural environments, the pinnae induce spectral cues that give rise to a sense of externalization; when spectral cues are unnatural, sounds are perceived as closer to the listener. We manipulate

SUBMITTER: Baumgartner R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5594652 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature